Cinema Year Zero is volunteer run. Our goal is to pay writers a fair fee for their work. So if you like what you find at Cinema Year Zero, please consider subscribing to our Patreon!
We released three issues in 2023, a venerable trilogy in which we attempted to reorient ourselves in the landscape of film and film criticism. Bleeding Edge was our attempt to examine contemporary visual art from gallery spaces to Youtube via Michael Bay. Our Portals of the Past volume focussed on the moments in films that acted in service of transference form one context to another. In The Critic, we asked what it was all for.
The 2023 list functions as a capper to the year’s project. Formal and thematic transgression sits alongside classicism, often in the same film, scene, or moment. Does the dominance of Hollywood product reveal a lack of curiosity on the part of our voters and editorial staff, or simply expose us as broke bitches who cannot afford to visit international film festivals? It’s elementary: this was a year of excellence from the mainstream, and bravo to Radu Jude for pulling so many industrial, social, and emotional concerns together in Cinema Year Zero’s film of the year. As usual, you will find the individual ballots below, alongside our contributors’ ‘discoveries’ of the year.
Cinema Year Zero will return in the spring
Films of 2023
- Do Not Expect Too Much From The End of the World (Radu Jude)
For any high-falutin’ producer who ever wondered about the shit their fixer goes through. Jude’s eighth is a Sisyphean rollick through Bucharest following put-upon production assistant Angela. Proudly idiosyncratic, with a Uwe Boll jumpscare. (Kirsty Asher)
- May December (Todd Haynes)
Lisps, hot dogs, shared spliffs, a sleeveless dress, a hidden love letter, and a snake are just some of the more tactile elements that Todd Haynes uses to populate this tragic, exhuberant, funny and oh-so-alive American masterpiece. (Ben Flanagan)
- Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
Scorsese wends this story of localised genocide into an onslaught of dread, such that the audience feels the true horror in being capable only of watching. (KA)
- Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan
When you read Das Kapital (in German) for some pussy only to wind up working for the US military and destroying the entire world you get Oppie. Nolan still can’t write women, but a banger’s a banger. (Cathy Brennan)
- Asteroid City (Wes Anderson)
Wes Anderson asks questions about himself and his work and comes up with a refreshingly honest lack of answers; it doesn’t matter, just keep telling the story. (Esmé Holden)
- The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg)
Sneaking in on a technicality—and with some campaigning—The Fabelmans reveals so much about Spielberg as an artist that cannot be unseen, without ever compromising its deeply felt familial melodrama. (EH)
- Afire (Christian Petzold)
A pithy eulogy to the monument of the Serious White Author, albeit one that still finds some small empathy for those who are merely troubled rather than troubled geniuses. (Blaise Radley)
- Knock at the Cabin (M. Night Shyamalan)
Dave Bautista tries to stop the armageddon dressed as Peter Griffin. Each camera movement feels like the slash of a knife, each cut a blunt force trauma. The neurotic death cult of Shyamalan’s cinema reaches a new devastating peak. (BF)
- Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt)
The reality of life as an artist isn’t fancy gallery openings and schmoozing bigwigs, it’s arguing with your landlord about the hot water and dealing with what the cat dragged in—Kelly Reichardt gets it. (BR)
- La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher)
Constantly shifting in an entirely uncontrived way, even in the swaying, elusive depths of Alice Rohrwacher’s film it always makes perfect emotional, and maybe even mythological sense. (EH)
Cinema Year Zero is volunteer run. Our goal is to pay writers a fair fee for their work. So if you like what you find at Cinema Year Zero, please consider subscribing to our Patreon!
The Ballots
Dylan Adamson
1. We Don’t Talk Like We Used To (Joshua Gen Solondz)
2. Asteroid City (Wes Anderson)
3. The Killer (David Fincher)
4. Laberint Sequences (Blake Williams)
5. May December (Todd Haynes)
6. He Thought He Died (Isiah Medina)
7. De Facto (Selma Doborac)
8. The Sweet East (Sean Price Williams)
9. Abattoir, U.S.A! (Aria Dean)
10. Obsessive Hours at the Topos of Reality (Rea Walldén)
Discoveries
1. Sweet Bunch (1983, Nikos Nikolaidis)
2. Sound and Fury (1988, Jean-Claude Brisseau)
3. Il Pianeta Azzurro (1982, Franco Piavoli)
4. Poppies and Sailboats (2001, Rose Lowder)
5. L’Eau de la Seine (1983, Teo Hernandez)
6. The House is Black (1963, Forugh Farrokhzad)
7. Topos (1985, Antoinetta Angelidi)
8. Luna e Santur (2016, Joshua Gen Solondz)
9. A Minute Ago (2014, Rachel Rose)
10. A Man Whose Life Was Full of Woe Has Been Surprised by Joy (1997, R. Bruce Elder)
Alonso Aguilar
1. El auge del humano 3, Eduardo Williams
2. Asteroid City, Wes Anderson
3. Bobajiztan, AgusFortnite2008
4. Cerrar los ojos, Victor Erice
5. John Wick: Chapter 4, Chad Stahelski
6. Killers of the Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese
7. Knock At The Cabin, M. Night Shyamalan
8. Nu Aștepta Prea Mult de la Sfârșitul Lumii, Radu Jude
9. Shin Kamen Rider, Hideaki Anno
10. Vuelta a Riaño, Miriam Martin
Discoveries
1. Ahora ya no estamos solos (1973), Pedro Rivera & Enoch Castillero
2. Путёвка в жизнь (1931), Nikolai Ekk
3. Costa Rica Banana Republic (1979), Ingo Niehaus
4. El espejo de la bruja (1962), Chano Urueta
5. Llevame en tus brazos (1954), Julio Bracho
6. La Mayoría Silenciosa (1974), Carlos Freer, Víctor Vega, Carlos Sáenz, Jorge Vilaplana, Amando Gatgens, Frida Liebhaber & Edgar Trigueros
7. Muchachas de uniforme (1951), Alfredo B. Crevenna
8. Na Missão, com Kadu (2016), Pedro Maia de Brito, Kadu Freitas & Aiano Bemfica
9. Native Land (1942), Paul Strand & Leo Hurwitz
10. Zona Intertidal (1980), Grupo Los Vagos
Kirsty Asher
Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude)
Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
A Life on the Farm (Oscar Harding)
The Sweet East (Sean Price Williams)
Kokomo City (D. Smith)
The Rolling Giant (The Oldest View Part 3) (Kane Parsons)
Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan)
Pamela, A Love Story (Ryan White)
Knock At the Cabin (M. Night Shyamalan)
Omen (Baloji)
Discoveries
West Indies (Med Hondo, 1979)
A Canterbury Tale (Powell and Pressburger, 1944)
Kamikaze Hearts (Juliet Bashore, 1986)
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) ( Cathy Yan, 2020)
Freaked (Tom Stern & Alex Winter, 1993)
Sightseers (Ben Wheatley, 2012)
Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1945)
The London Nobody Knows (Norman Cohen, 1969)
Nostos: The Return (Franco Piavoli, 1989)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974)
Nadira Begum
1. Rye Lane (dir. Raine Allen-Miller)
2. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret (dir. Kelly Fremon Craig)
3. Anatomy of a Fall (dir. Justine Triet)
4. Foe (dir. Garth Davis)
5. The Holdovers (dir. Alexander Payne)
6. Priscilla (dir. Sofia Coppola)
7. Scrapper (dir. Charlotte Regan)
8. The Taste of Things (dir. Tran Anh Hung)
9. Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part 1 (dir. Christopher McQuarrie)
10. Oppenheimer (dir. Christopher Nolan)
Discoveries
1. The Age of Innocence (1993, dir. Scorsese)
2. My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997, dir. P.J. Hogan)
3. Finyé (1982, dir. Souleymane Cissé)
4. Black Girl (1966, dir. Ousmane Sembène)
5. Kaddu Beykat (1975, dir. Safi Faye)
6. The Bourne Identity (2002, dir. Doug Liman)
7. Mona Lisa Smile (2003, dir. Mike Newell)
8. Pillow Talk (1959, dir. Michael Gordon)
9. Speed (1994, dir. Jan De Bont)
10. Mission: Impossible (1996, dir. Brian De Palma)
Cathy Brennan
Kokomo City
Oppenheimer
Passages
Rotting in the Sun
Bad Behaviour
Shayda
Rye Lane
Youth
Transition
Polite Society
Discoveries
1. I Don’t Know
The Meatrack
The Devil Queen
Empathy
Go, Go Second Time Virgin
Madeleine Is…
Bamako
Decent Men
Anyone But My Husband
Red Army/PFLP: Declaration of World War
James Brice
In lieu of a proper list – put it down to my significantly reduced diet of new films – here are a few double-bills I code-jammed for you fine folks. By no means top-to-bottom great – any true heads will know there’s two real stinkers below. Like Mac said: “Garbage, really, but: fun to make.”
Here (2023)//Night River (1956)
Red lines, labour/love in the age of biochemistry, man is the most fascinating species.
John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)//Branded to Kill (1967)
Odysseys, one neat, the other unkempt – Suzuki eats genre for breakfast, Wick spews it back out as idiot lore mucus.
Shin Kamen Rider (2023)//Prince of Darkness (1987)
Vibe sciences and the inhuman.
Small, Slow But Steady (2023)//World on a Wire (1973)
A perfect world is still built on lies, but at least it’s for someone: struggle breeds resilience, a tolerance to indignity.
Afire (2023)//La Commune (2000)
Two cinemas: a multitude and a box. A camera is a gun, or it can be a tether. Live a little.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)//The Mother and the Whore (1973)
The past is a building block to the present, and a generation is linear, fluid, still a multitude. The soixant-huitard and the soixant-de-rétard.
The Daughters of Fire (2023)//Islands of Fire (1955)
Molten thought for a freer world.
Sarah Cleary
A perfect world is still built on lies, but at least it’s for someone: struggle breeds resilience, a tolerance to indignity.
“unfortunately, much to my shame, I don’t think I saw ten new movies I really liked last year eek.”
Discoveries
I Don’t Want to be a Man
Bulworth
Queen Christina
Moolaadé
Nighthawks
Lady Windermere’s Fan
Gone to Earth
Blue
Fritz the Cat
Up, Down, Fragile
Wilde Davis
Orlando, My Political Biography by Paul B Preciado
Mommy on Drugs by David Leo
The Lost Boys by Zeno Graton
The Deep Queer Massacre by Matthieu Morel
A Thousand and One by A.V. Rockwell
The Night Logan Woke Up by Xavier Dolan
Killers of the Flower Moon by Martin Scorsese
Talk to Me by Danny and Michael Philippou
Nowhere Near by Miko Revereza
Door Mouse by Avan Jogia
Discoveries
Mod Fuck Explosion by Jon Moritsugu
Black Box by Beth B.
Mi Aporte by Sara Gómez
Scaregrow in a Garden of Cucumbers by Richard J. Kaplan
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas by Colin Higgins
Alucarda by Juan López Moctezuma
Chameleon Street by Wendell B. Harris Jr.
The Iron Rose by Jean Rollin
Sweet Bird of Youth by Richard Brooks
Bell, Book and Candle by Richard Quine
Anna Devereux
The Holdovers (Alexander Payne)
Blackberry (Matthew Johnson)
May December (Todd Haynes)
Tár (Todd Field)
Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan)
Asteroid City (Wes Anderson)
How to Blow Up a Pipeline (Daniel Goldhaber)
Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg)
Maestro (Bradley Cooper) (minus Sarah Silverman’s performance)
Discoveries
Al-Makhdu’un/The Dupes (1972, Tewfik Saleh)
The Exorcist (1974, William Friedkin)
The Rose Tattoo (1955, Daniel Mann)
The Ladies Man (1961, Jerry Lewis)
The Family Jewels (1965, Jerry Lewis)
Squirrels to the Nuts (2015, Peter Bogdanovich)
Airheads (1994, Michael Lehmann)
Hondo (1953, John Farrow)
The Mark of Zorro (1940, Rouben Mamoulian)
Bottle Rocket (1996, Wes Anderson)
Paul Farrell
1. Saint Omer
2. Oppenheimer
3. Copenhagen Cowboy
4. Killers of the Flower Moon
5. Shin Ultraman
6. May December
7. The Boy and the Heron
8. Rye Lane
9. The Gallows Pole
10. Knock at the Cabin
Discoveries
1. So Is This (Snow, 1982)
2. The Beautiful Room is Empty (Haddad, 2022)
3. Naked Blood (Satô, 1996)
4. Mobile Men (Apichatpong, 2008)
5. A Confucian Confusion (Yang, 1994)
6. All Star Video (Sakamoto, Paik, Garrin, 1985)
7. Meet Me in St. Louis (Minnelli, 1944)
8. Deewar (Chopra, 1975)
9. Gregory’s Girl (Forsyth, 1980)
10. The PriceMaster (Perry, Martin, 2001)
Ben Flanagan
1. The Delinquents (Rodrigo Moreno)
2. Knock at the Cabin (M. Night Shyamalan)
3. Do Not Expect Too Much From The End of the World (Radu Jude)
4. Pacifition (Albert Serra)
5. Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella)
6. May December (Todd Haynes)
7. Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros (Frederick Wiseman)
8. About 30 (Martín Shanly)
9. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
10. The Plough (Philippe Garrel)
Discoveries
Blackhat Director’s Cut (Mann, 2015 via Arrow)
Jerry Lewis films
Messiah of Evil (Katz, Huyck, 1974 via Radiance)
If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do? (Ormond, 1971 via Indicator)
A trillogy – Three 6 Mafia: Choices: The Movie (Green, 2001) / Silent Hill (Gans, 2006) / Porject X (Nourizadeh, 2012)
Emma Stone in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (Waters, 2009)
Wang Bing Films, particularly West of the Tracks (2002), Three Sisters (2012), Bitter Money (2016)
The day I watched 5 beach movies – Blue Crush (Stockwell, 2002) / Puberty Blues (Beresford, 1981) / Psycho Beach Party (Lee King. 2000) / Gidget (Wendkos, 1959) / The Girls on the Beach (Witney, 1965)
Rouben Mamoulien at Il Cinema Ritrovato
Andy Warhol films
Esmé Holden
The Fabelmans
One Fine Morning
In Water
Asteroid City [Honourable mention to his Roald Dahl shorts, The Swan in particular]
Priscilla
La Chimera
Showing Up
Fallen Leaves
Killers of the Flower Moon
Trailer of a Film That Will Never Exist
Discoveries
History is Made at Night (1937, Frank Borzage)
For being a miracle in film form.
10 & Victora/Victoria (1979 & 1982, Blake Edwards)
For revealing Blake Edwards as one of the great Hollywood directors.
Rock Hudson’s Home Movies (1992, Mark Rappaport)
For finding the joy in reclamation, even when it doesn’t make sense.
Woman on the Beach (1947, Jean Renoir)
For being so alive and divisive seventy years later [Honourable mention to some other films I saw at Cinema Ritrovato: Queen Christina, The Marriage Circle, Stella Dallas & The Dupes].
Bonnie & Clyde (1967, Arthur Penn)
For cutting through the history that has obscured it.
Mr Vampire II (1986, Ricky Lau)
For the purest cinematic pleasure I felt all year, and the slow motion scene.
A Confucian Confusion (1994, Edward Yang)
For perfectly translating Yang’s style to comedy, and perhaps even deepening it.
Peeping Tom (1960, Michael Powell)
For transforming into another film entirely on a rewatch.
Bulworth (1998, Warren Beatty)
For turning a room from irony to joy.
Magic Spot (2022, Charles Roxburgh)
For finding beauty in strange places.
Cinema Year Zero is volunteer run. Our goal is to pay writers a fair fee for their work. So if you like what you find at Cinema Year Zero, please consider subscribing to our Patreon!
Digby Houghton
1. La Chimera
2. Saint Omer
3. The Sweet East
4. May / December
5. Afire
6. The Holdovers
7. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
8. Royal Hotel
9. Stone Turtle
10. Poor Things
Discoveries
Lovesick (Bill Mousoulis, 2002)
Stir (Stephen Wallace, 1980)
Light Sleeper (Paul Schrader)
Richard Jewell (Clint Eastwood)
Trouble Every Day (Claire Denis, @ the wonderful Melbourne International Film Festival)
Woolloomooloo (Pat Fiske, 1978) @ the inimitable Artist Film Workshop screening
The Skywalk is Gone (Tsai Ming-liang, 2004)
In The Mood For Love (Wong Kar-Wai, )
Queensland (John Ruane, 1976) @ the ever-so-fantastic Unknown Pleasures
Pickpocket (Robert Bresson, 1959)
Ellisha Izumi
1. Stars at Noon (Denis)
2. Saint Omer (Diop)
3. May/December (Haynes)
4. Greg Wallace: The British Meat Miracle (Kingsley)
5. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Poitras)
6. Marcel the Shell with Shoes on (Fleischer-Camp)
7. Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse (Dos Santos, Thompson, Powers)
8. Maestro (Cooper)
9. Fair Play (Domont)
10. Sick of Myself (Borgli)
Discoveries
The Tied Up Balloon (Zhelyazkova, 1967)
Targets (Bogdanovich, 1968)
A Bullet for the General / Quien Sabe? (Damiani, 1957)
The Turin Horse (Tarr, 2011)
The Straight Story (Lynch, 1999)
Lina Bo Bardi – A Marvelous Entanglement (Julien, 2020)
Hal/Haru (Morita, 1996)
Place Mattes (Hammer, 1987)
The Pillow Book (Greenaway, 1995)
Stranger and the Fog (Beyzai, 1976)
Amos Levin
May December
The Fabelmans
Evil Does Not Exist
Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World
Saint Omer
Four Daughters
La Chimera
Killers of the Flower Moon
Priscilla
Escasso
Discoveries
Edvard Munch
The Swimmer
Crash (’96)
Bushman
The Earrings of Madame de…
Bamako
Tale of Tales (’79)
Queen Christina
La ciénaga
Elektra, My Love
The Nightingale’s Voice
Buud Yaam
Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther
Distant Voices, Still Lives
Du soleil pour les gueux
Tokyo Blood
Service for Ladies
Applause
Some More Rice
Mildred Pierce (2011)
Aristotle’s Plot
Sarajevo Film Festival
Man’s Castle
Manhandled (’24)
Vampires of Poverty
Ioanna Micha
1. Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things
2. Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest
3. Nelson Polfliet’s Portrait of a Disappearing Woman
4. Mohammad Valizadegan’s And Me, I’m Dancing Too
5. David Kennhed’s Blue
6. Hannah-Lisa Paul’s Riten.
7. Inga Elin Marakatt’s Unborn Biru
8. Claudius Gentinetta’s Think Something Nice
9. Ilker Çatak’s The Teacher’s Lounge
10. Roosa Vuokkola’s How to Take Care of Your Parakeet
Discoveries
1. Alice Diop’s Saint Omer
2. Carol Reed’s The Third Man
3. Terence Malick’s Knight of Cups
4. Miruna Minculescu’s Fragmentations
5. Sofia Ose’s A Small Circle
6. Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage
7. Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari
8. Florencia Wehbe’s Paula
9. Joana Pimenta and Adirley Queirós’s Dry Ground Burning
10. Despina Mauridou’s Hussies
Sam Moore
1. Killers of the Flower Moon
2. May December
3. Anatomy of a Fall
4. Poor things
5. The Holdovers
6. All of us Strangers
7. Oppenheimer
8. Godzilla Minus One
9. Evil Does Not Exist
10. Late Night with the Devil
Discoveries
Bergman Island
The Devils
The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter
The Fabulous Baron Munchausen
F For Fake
Holiday
Ikirae XB 1
Moonstruck
Out of the Past
Tropical Malady
Joseph Owen
Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World | Radu Jude | 2023 | 2h 43m (Palacinema, Locarno)
The Human Surge 3 | Eduardo Williams | 2023 | 2h 1m (Teatro Kursaal, Locarno)
Afire | Christian Petzold | 2023 | 1h 43m (Curzon Soho)
Killers of the Flower Moon | Martin Scorsese | 2023 | 3h 26m (Odeon Leicester Square)
The Curse | Nathan Fielder & Benny Safdie | 2023 | 10 episodes (Addington Square)
Asteroid City | Wes Anderson | 2023 | 1h 45m (Peckhamplex)
A Wild Roomer | Lee Jeong-hong | 2022 | 2h 16m (Kino Muranów, Warsaw)
Passages | Ira Sachs | 2023 | 1h 31m (Curzon Soho)
May December | Todd Haynes | 2023 | 1h 53m (Royal Festival Hall)
Reality | Tina Satter | 2023 | 1h 23m (Peckhamplex)
Discoveries
McCabe & Mrs. Miller | Robert Altman | 1971 | 2h 1m
High School | Frederick Wiseman | 1968 | 1h 15m
Apaches | John Mackenzie | 1977 | 26m
What’s Up, Doc? | Peter Bogdanovich | 1972 | 1h 34m
Ménilmontant | Dimitri Kirsanoff | 1926 | 38m
Come Drink with Me | King Hu | 1966 | 1h 35m
Five Easy Pieces | Bob Rafelson | 1970 | 1h 38m
The House of Mirth | Terence Davies | 2000 | 2h 20m
Hello, It’s Me | Frunze Dovlatyan | 1966 | 2h 17m
Trouble in Paradise | Ernst Lubitsch | 1932 | 1h 23m
Maximilien Luc Proctor
to open a window (Craig Scheihing)
Hier & Elders / Here & Elsewhere (Bram Ruiter)
that what moves: does the leaf know + fingerinesses (Blanca García )
I./II./III. (Alexandre Larose)
Pala Amala / Mother Father (Tenzin Phuntsog)
Fale (Antoni Orlof)
in the fishtank (Linnea Nugent)
bleared eyes of blue glass (Park Kyujae)
Sightreading (Nicholas Christenson)
Fluid Fragments (MLP)
Music (Angela Schanelec)
Samsara (Lois Patiño)
Discoveries
يس لهم وجود / They Do Not Exist (Mustafa Abu Ali, 1974)
An Explanation: (and then burn the ashes) (Annemarie Jacir, 2006)
Trapline (Ellie Epp, 1975)
Gestures (Vincent Guilbert, 2017)
off (I don’t know when to stop) (Erica Sheu, 2021)
기억의 표면, 표면에 대한 기억 / Surface of Memory, Memory on Surface (Lee Jang-wook, 1999)
Healing Ray (Jorge Suárez-Quiñones Rivas, 2021)
Mélodie de brumes à Paris / Mist Melodies in Paris (Julius-Amédée Laou, 1985)
Mati Manas / Mind of Clay (Mani Kaul, 1985)
Sales images / Dirty Images (Rémy Beausoleil, Michel DeGagné & Michel Gélinas, 1988)
Beavers (Stephen Low, 1988)
Blaise Radley
Pacifiction (Albert Serra)
The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg)
Youth (Spring) (Wang Bing)
Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan)
Skinamarink (Kyle Edward Ball)
Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella)
May December (Todd Haynes)
The Plains (David Easteal)
Shin Kamen Rider (Hideaki Anno)
Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt)
Discoveries
A Moment of Romance (Chan, 1990)
The Doom Generation (Araki, 1995)
Exotica (Egoyan, 1994)
Glen or Glenda (Wood, 1953)
The Graceful Brute (Kawashima, 1962)
Hyenas (Mambéty, 1992)
The Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (Anger, 1954)
One False Move (Franklin, 1991)
Two Years at Sea (Rivers, 2011)
Three Outlaw Samurai (Gosha, 1964)
Orla Smith
1. Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt)
2. 32 Sounds (Sam Green)
3. A Still Small Voice (Luke Lorentzen)
4. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan)
5. Asteroid City (Wes Anderson)
6. Love Life (Koji Fukada)
7. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet)
8. How to Have Sex (Molly Manning Walker)
9. Searchers (Pacho Velez)
10. Fremont (Babak Jalali)
Discoveries
The Crowd (King Vidor, 1928) / The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928) — I discovered that there’s nothing like seeing a silent film in the cinema with a live score.
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (William Greaves, 1968) — I discovered that the best word to describe this classic, important, seminal text of a film is “cheeky”.
Sweet Charity (Bob Fosse, 1969) — I discovered that this might be a great film to show the musical skeptics in my life, because it’s darker than a lot of classic musicals, it pokes fun at the plot conventions associated with classic musicals, but it’s also very much a classic musical in all the very best ways.
Claudine (John Berry, 1974) — thanks to Cinema Rediscovered, I discovered a ‘70s New York classic that is rarely ever namechecked amongst the classics.
New York, New York (Martin Scorsese, 1977) — I discovered that this is Martin Scorsese’s best film and everyone who thinks it’s bad is wrong on a level I cannot comprehend.
Twilight (György Fehér, 1990) — I discovered that a film can be both deeply unsettling and incredibly aesthetically soothing
Postcards from the Edge (Mike Nichols, 1990) — I discovered that Carrie Fisher should have written many more screenplays than she did.
What Happened Was… (Tom Noonan, 1994) — I discovered that, of course, a movie about two lonely people trying to tell each other things about themselves is a horror movie.
The Straight Story (Lynch, 1999) / Inland Empire (David Lynch, 2006) — I discovered my favourite Lynch film in The Straight Story, and with Inland Empire, that being practically asleep for the entire middle act of a film can be a feature instead of a bug.
Gosford Park (Robert Altman, 2001) — I discovered that a film that is sort-of responsible for Downton Abbey could be this funny, biting, complex, and moving.
Fedor Tot
Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
The Outwaters (Robbie Banfitch)
Afire (Christian Petzold)
Knock at the Cabin (M. Night Shyamalan)
Red Rooms (Pascal Plante)
Small, Slow but Steady (Sho Miyake)
Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet)
Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude)
Have You Seen This Woman? (Dušan Zorić / Matija Gluščević)
The New Boy (Warwick Thornton)
Discoveries
The Rats Woke Up / Budjenje Pacova (Živojin Pavlović, 1967)
Dancing in the Rain / Ples v dežju (Boštjan Hladnik, 1961)
The Swarm / Roj (Miodrag Popović, 1966)
She-Butterfly / Leptirica (Đorđe Kadijević, 1973)
Strangler vs Strangler / Davitelj protiv Davitelja (Slobodan Šijan, 1984)
Twilight / Szürkület (György Fehér, 1990)
Far from Home / Dar ghorbat (Sohrab Shahid Saless, 1975)
Kummatty (Govindan Aravindan, 1979)
The Heroic Trio (Johnnie To, 1993)
Macunaima (Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, 1969)
Cinema Year Zero is volunteer run. Our goal is to pay writers a fair fee for their work. So if you like what you find at Cinema Year Zero, please consider subscribing to our Patreon!
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